School Enrollments Rising Sharply in Africa Following
Debt Cancellation and Increased Spending
Primary school enrollments are up as African governments channel debt
savings to education sector; Education quality concerns remain
12.10.07
Sub-Saharan Africa is making dramatic gains in school enrollments thanks to increased public expenditure by African governments and savings from debt relief, according to the recently released 2008 UNESCO Global Monitoring Report (GMR), which tracks global progress in meeting international education commitments. Sub-Saharan African countries enrolled an additional 29 million children in primary school between 1999 and 2005, thanks in large part to savings from debt relief. Between 2004 and 2005 alone, primary school enrollments in sub-Saharan Africa jumped by 5.7 million children.
The number of primary-school aged children who are out-of-school dropped in Africa from 35.5 million to 33 million between 2004 and 2005. Despite this progress in expanding access, however, the report notes that education quality continues to be a major weakness in African countries and the continent has some the lowest primary school completion rates in the world.
Key Statistics
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Global
| Africa
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Increase in enrollments 1999-2005: 41 million
| Increase in enrollments 1999-2005: 29 million |
Primary-age children out-of-school: 72 million
| Primary-age children out-of-school: 33 million
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Net enrollment rate: 87%
| Net enrollment rate: 70%
|
Primary completion rate: 87%
| Primary completion rate: 63%
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| Teacher shortage: 2.7 million | Teacher shortage: 1.6 million |
Tracking Progress in Global Education
The data used to track global progress in education is limited, especially in Africa, due to the difficulty of collecting and standardizing data across many different countries. Estimates are often necessary to fill these gaps. Four key measurements used to assess progress in primary education include: 1) enrollments in primary school by all children (referenced above), 2) the number of primary school age children who are out-of-school (referenced above), 3) primary school enrollment rates (i.e. the percentage of primary school age children enrolled in primary school), and 4) primary school completion rates (i.e. how many children finish school).
- Primary School Enrollments1: In sub-Saharan Africa, enrollments in primary school among all age groups increased by 5.7 million between 2004 and 2005, bringing new enrollments to 29 million since 1999. Globally, 41 million more children were enrolled in school between 1999 and 2005.
- Number of Children Out-of-School2: The number of out-of-school primary-age children in sub-Saharan Africa fell by over 2.8 million children between 2004 and 2005, from 35.5 million to 33 million. Girls accounted for 54% of the out-of-school children in 2005. Globally, the number of out-of-school children dropped by 24 million between 1999 and 2005, falling from 96 million to 72 million.
- Primary School Enrollment Rate (Net Enrollment Ratio)3: Between 1999 and 2005, Sub-Saharan Africa’s net enrollment rate in primary school increased from 57% to 70%, the largest increase in any region. However, sub-Saharan Africa still has the world’s lowest rate; globally, the average net enrollment rate was 87% in 2005. African countries experiencing the greatest growth in primary school enrollment rates included Ethiopia, Zambia, Ghana, Mozambique, Tanzania and Burkina Faso.
- Primary School Completion Rate4: Primary school completion rates remain lowest in sub-Saharan Africa, with a median rate of 63% compared to 79% in South and West Asia and 87% globally.
Financing
The report highlights promising trends in African education expenditures, thanks in large part to savings from debt relief, and only modest increases in new donor development assistance for education. Rising expenditures by African governments provide a clear indication of increased prioritization of the sector.
Public Expenditure on Education by African Governments
Sub-Saharan African countries have substantially increased their spending on education with expenditures as a share of Gross National Product (GNP) growing at an average of 5.5% between 1999 and 2005. Donor-supported debt relief has allowed heavily indebted African countries to increase spending on education. Since 2001, Mali has directed 48% of savings from debt relief to the education sector each year. As a result, expenditure on education increased by 14% over the five-year period. In Nigeria, savings from debt relief were used to hire 40,000 more teachers.
Donor Financing
Globally, there has been a strong, upward trend in Official Development Assistance (ODA) for education since 2000, rising by $4.2 billion (from $6.5 billion to $10.7 billion) between 2000 and 2004. But global aid to education decreased by over $2 billion in 2005. ODA to primary education increased from $1.5 billion in 1999 to $3.9 billion in 2004, and then also fell in 2005 to $2.4 billion.
The DATA Report 2007 found less promising trends in Africa. Financing from G8 countries for primary education in Africa peaked in 2003 at $680 million, but dropped back to $535 million in 2004. It increased to just $552 million in 2005. Given that Africa accounts for nearly half of the world’s out-of-school children, these trends are disappointing. Financing for education – globally and in Africa – has not been in line with the ambitious Education for All targets agreed to by donors at the landmark World Education Forum in Dakar, Senegal in 2000.
Fast Track Initiative Getting Results Gains in primary education are concentrated in countries that have been endorsed by the Fast Track Initiative (FTI). The FTI, a global partnership which channels bilateral and multilateral education funding to countries that have produced rigorous and accountable national education plans, has so far endorsed 33 low-income countries since it was established in 2002. The FTI Annual Report 2007 documents progress being made in these countries: - 12 million more children have gone to school in the 33 FTI countries between 2000 and 2005, a 26% increase in five years.
- If recent trends are maintained, all but three FTI countries will achieve the goal of gender parity in primary education by 2015.
- Seven FTI countries have participated in one of the major international education tests. Prior to 2003, no low income countries had participated in such testing.
- Seven countries – Benin, Cambodia, Ethiopia, Guinea, Madagascar, Mozambique and Rwanda have shown remarkable progress in improving their primary completion rate, increasing by at least 3 percentage points per year over the last five years. Four of these seven countries recently abolished user fees, whereas this was the case for only one of the five countries showing the least positive trends.
- Of the 14 low-income countries in which the share of GNP for education increased by at least one percentage point since 1999, nine are FTI countries.
The FTI expects to endorse 3 additional countries by the end of 2007, seven by the end of 2008 and another 13 countries by the end of 2009. Increased external financing will be critical to the global partnership’s continued expansion. The external financing gap for FTI countries is estimated at an average of $1 billion each year over the next three years (2008-2010). This will grow to as much as $2.4 billion in 2010 if all expected countries receive endorsement.
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Putting It All Together - Country Examples
It is important to understand how primary education measurements fit together. Many African countries may be trending upward on one measurement, but downward on another. For example, even in countries which experienced large growth in primary school enrollment rates, such as Burkina Faso and Tanzania, completion rates are appallingly low. Only 31% of primary students in Burkina Faso complete a full course of primary schooling. In Tanzania, the completion rate actually declined slightly between 2004 and 2005. In Uganda, which introduced free primary schooling in 1997, only 25% of primary school children reached the last grade of primary school in 2004. In Benin, Chad, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Mozambique, Rwanda, and Uganda, fewer than half of pupils reach the last grade (grade 5); however, rates are improving in Mozambique, Mali and South Africa.
Sub-Saharan countries that have successfully increased both enrollment and completion rates include Ethiopia, Mali and Mozambique. Progress in Ethiopia is perhaps the most striking on the entire continent. Ethiopia enrolled an additional 700,000 primary pupils between 2005 and 2006 and since 2000, has enrolled nearly 4 million additional children in primary school, doubling its primary school enrollments. The country also doubled its primary participation rate and significantly improved its primary completion rate over the same period.
Other Key Findings:
- Over the next decade, sub-Saharan Africa’s primary school age population is expected to grow at a sustained rate of 22% putting more pressure on national education systems.
- Sub-Saharan Africa has a shortage of 1.6 million teachers. Globally, the teacher shortage stands at 2.7 million.
- In 2005, only 59 of 181 countries (about one-third) with data available had achieved gender parity (meaning no gender disparity in access to primary education) for both primary and secondary education. About 63% of countries with data available achieved gender parity at the primary level compared with 37% at the secondary level.
- Fourteen Sub-Saharan African countries have achieved gender parity in primary education.
Explanation of Terms
- 1Primary School Enrollments
These top-line enrollment figures measure gross enrollments, which means they include kids of all ages who are enrolled in primary school (e.g. it includes older kids enrolling at the primary level because they finally have the opportunity to get an education). Gross enrollments provide a broad but imperfect measure of the education system’s capacity. - 2Number of Children Out-of-School
Out-of-school figures only measure children who are in the official primary school age group who are not in school. It does not include, for instance, older children who are not in school. For this reason, the number of out-of-school children cannot be compared to the primary school enrollments figure referenced above. - 3Primary School Enrollment Rate (Net Enrollment Ratio)
The net enrollment ratio measures the percentage of children who are of the official primary school age who are actually enrolled in primary school. Looking at the participation rate of just the primary school age bracket is useful in judging a country’s (or region’s) distance from Universal Primary Education, the goal to put every primary age child in primary school. - 4Primary School Completion Rate
The second Millennium Development Goal is to achieve universal primary education completion by 2015. The primary completion rate, measured as the percentage of students who make it to grade 5, is used to monitor progress on this target. And given the absence of more appropriate quality and outcome indicators for a large number of countries, it also serves as a rough, though imperfect proxy for education quality.
